


Like a Moth to a Flame

by intpfairy



Series: House on Fire [1]
Category: 16 Personalities - Fandom, mbti - Fandom
Genre: Dont know? Dont read, F!enfp called Mabel, F/M, Implied pyromania, alcohol mention, childhood friends trope, implied bisexuality, m!entp called Benny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intpfairy/pseuds/intpfairy
Summary: Childhood snippets, old memories, companionship.
Relationships: f!enfp/m!entp
Series: House on Fire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070723
Kudos: 1





	Like a Moth to a Flame

**Author's Note:**

> For Vriska :) I hope you like it

They were the loudest kids in the class, albeit in different ways. 

Benny was argumentative. Wouldn’t stop talking and wouldn’t let the other kids stop talking either. Although he was by no means a bully, he certainly enjoyed riling up his friends and watching the conversation descend into chaos.

Mabel was just loud in general; unwilling to stop talking when class started, unable to be quiet when she found herself passionate about something. 

So, naturally, when the two of them found themselves positioned in front of the teacher’s desk, a friendship started to form. Mabel remembers never really _getting_ Benny at first. They weren’t into the same things but that didn’t stop Mabel from trying to laugh along to whatever he was talking about, eventually plunging herself into his interests for a better grasp. Benny, on the other hand, remembers the first person to ever really engage with him like that. Someone that was able to flawlessly divert the cockiness and arguments into nothing but laughter and clumsy drawings of cartoon characters. Mabel would rip them out of her jotter and pass them to him silently, watching his face light up as he recognised whoever it was supposed to be.

And they always tried their very hardest not to get split up. 

———

A magnifying glass was simultaneously the best and worst thing Mabel had ever gotten for her Christmas. Benny loved it, taking the opportunity to become a “real” detective with it whenever she brought it over to his house. Mabel had found it all a bit boring at first, disregarding the other parts of the detective kit that it came with and handing over those things to Benny.

Until she found that it had a very interesting use. 

A sunny day, a piece of paper on the ground, a single magnifying glass and two children crouched on the ground with one of them shining the glass onto the piece of paper. Despite watching it singe and smoke, it still shocked them to see the paper actually set fire to itself, as if by magic. 

They ran off to retreat behind a tree and when they came back to investigate, the piece of paper had stopped burning. 

That magnifying glass became the first item Mabel ever had confiscated from her. It had left Benny devastated, so she tried to make it up to him in the form of participating in his “mysteries”, all too eager to play a clumsy murderess (of stuffed animals and action figures) for Benny to find out and accuse. 

———

Later in school came a more confusing time. 

Girls had cooties (“But”, Benny said, lightly grabbing a handful of her hair. “I don’t see any in your hair. You must’ve washed them all out.”) and so did boys, arguably to a greater degree (“Now I need to check your hair,” Mabel exclaimed, standing up on her tippy-toes to see the top of Benny’s head. “Nope! Not a single one. Do you think we’re using the same shampoo?”  
“Must be.” Benny replied, matter-of-factly) and the children seemed to split themselves up by gender, blissfully unaware of the stage of sweaty palms and playground crushes that was yet to come.

Except Benny and Mabel. Despite having their own sets of friends, they still made the time to hang out with each other, even with the disapproving and slightly disgusted eyes of their classmates watching them. 

“We’re just friends, and I didn’t get cooties” must’ve been repeated a thousand times. 

———

It’s easy to find someone to dance with when your best friend is an option.

Children were divided into two lines in the hall. The boys had reluctantly trudged into theirs. The girls were still trying to slip towards the back of their own line, knowing that there was a surplus number of their kind so it would surely result in at least two or three being able to dance with one another. 

Benny was not one of those boys. Mabel was not one of those girls. They stood at the front of their lines knowing that they’d be paired off with one another. Mabel leaned across the space, whispering a comment about how a boy, midway through his line, couldn’t stop rubbing his hands together. Benny snickered. Mabel smiled. They went hand in hand, fully prepared to mess up every single one of the dance moves. It was funnier that way.

———

Mabel didn’t seem to care for being judged as she entered her teen years. It was like she sped through a phase every month, with new makeup, new clothes, new hobbies for every single one of them. It settled after a while, where she truly reached the point where Mabel became Mabel, with her own distinct style. 

Benny was more reluctant to experiment with his fashion sense. His changes were more about interests. His room seemed to have every cool thing that was around at the time: game systems, gadgets, a Swiss Army Knife with thirty-three functions. 

This lead to Mabel going over there a lot. 

“I don’t like my own house, Benny-Benito,” She said. “I have to share the TV with everyone else. I feel like it’s pointless getting a games console for it.”

She was lying face down on Benny’s bed whilst Benny flicked the joysticks of his controller effortlessly, proceeding to the next level of his game. 

“Maybe if you saved up some money you could get a handheld one.” He responded.

 _“Save?”_ She whined. Then, with a miserable sigh, “I guess you’re right.”

Benny smirked.

“I can hear you smirking from here, Benny,” Mabel said, slowly rolling over. “And, not to burst your bubble or anything, but you’re only kind of right. I could get one for Christmas and not have to save a single penny.”

“What about the rewarding experience of saving up?”

“Since when have _you_ ever cared for things like that?”

“Yeah, okay, I get it.” Benny responded. A controller was tossed in Mabel’s direction, thumping softly on the mattress beside her. 

“Two player round?”

“You’re on.”

———

“Is he your boyfriend, though?” Tracy asked. 

Mabel drummed her fingers on the carpet, thoroughly regretting picking “truth”. 

“No, he’s not. Come on guys. I thought we were gonna stop asking this question a year ago.”

The bottle was still pointed in Mabel’s direction, like one glass eye examining every word that came from her lips. 

She started to reach out for it, determined to spin the attention away from herself. 

Tracy placed her hand on the bottle before she could. “But you must want to try it out, right? Unless you swing a different way? And that’s why you’re friends?”

Everyone was looking at them. Mabel’s eyes shone upwards, staring at Tracy, who’s full lips were pulled into a smile, trimmed eyebrows were set close to her eyes, angled downwards, mockingly, cockily, and thoughts began to rush through Mabel’s head just as fast as blood rushed to her cheeks.

Mabel laughed, unwilling to pause for too long. “Just friends,” She repeated, twisting the bottle in her wrist. “Whoever I’ve got next better pick dare. I’ve got a good one.”

———

“Are you okay with people who are like... gay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I kinda wanted to kiss my best friend yesterday.”

“Happened to me once.”

“It did?”

“Yeah, and then I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that I’m bisexual. Why? Are _you_ thinking you might be a lesbian?”

“I’m not very good at thinking in general, Benny.”

“You’ll just have to work with your feelings then. That’s what you do best, isn’t it? Going with your heart, that sort of thing.”

“Yeah... I can do that.”

———

Mabel held a few pieces of paper in one hand, and a lighter in the other. 

“Benny-Benito, we are going _burn_ our recent tests.”

Benny nodded, looking ready for something bad to happen. Mabel picked up on his apprehension and frowned. “What’s wrong? Are you scared about what happens if the teacher asks for them? Because if so, just say you lost it and apologise real good, I’m sure it’ll all be forgiven. 

“Remember when we were kids and you first set fire to something?”

“Exactly. I’ve got a natural instinct for it. I’m a pro, I’m an _expert.”_

She took it back when the flames licking at the paper managed to make their way onto her sleeve, leaving Benny desperately trying to put the fire out by patting it furiously with a hand that he’d tucked into the sleeve of his leather jacket. 

———

“Of course Tracy’s got a boyfriend,” Mabel sighed. “The dance isn’t going to be fun without her. She’s going to be off with him the entire time.”

“You can hang out with me.” Benny offered, saying the words that Mabel had hoped to hear the entire time. 

“Really? Thanks, Benny.” She smiled.

“Next time, just ask.” He said, oddly knowingly. Mabel frowned at the thought of being found out so easily, but she supposed that was what happened when you’re friends with someone for such a long time. 

“Is it like, a date?” She asked, softer than her usual tone of voice, running an anxious hand through her hair.

Benny paused like he wanted to ask something, until it all seemed to click in his mind.

“If you want it to be.”

———

There was alcohol on Benny’s lips when Mabel kissed him for the first time, sitting atop a grassy hill a short walk from their school. A golden sunset beamed across the sky and wind blew on their faces.

If Mabel closed her eyes, she could still hear the songs going in the distance.

The atmosphere was different, then. Their heads were dizzy with the rush of dancing and the snuck-in rum. Mabel moved in closer to Benny, who then proceeded to steady himself by putting his head against hers. They leaned in, beginning to laugh again, feeling truly in their natural states as the light sank into the horizon and their voices rang in the air.

They were the loudest kids in the class.


End file.
